‘We’re running out of food’: The priorities of Donald Trump’s America are flawlessly personified by one school’s insane spending decisions

It’s nerve-wracking enough for parents to send their young kids off to school for the first time, and as those children grow up, parents hope they have kind, inspiring teachers who help them thrive. But then parents also have to worry about how much government funding goes to each academic institution… and what those schools use the cash for.

Now that Donald Trump is serving a second term, government employee layoffs are making headlines on an almost daily basis as part of Elon Musk’s DOGE (aka the misguided attempt to make things more efficient and productive). TikTok user @jennagenovese shared a reminder that sometimes what education and school boards choose to spend money on also makes no sense. Jenna’s daughter, who attends school in Connecticut, tells her: “Our school spent $80,000 on Yonder pouches” (magnets that keep the students’ phones away from them).

$80,000? Yeah. It gets even more infuriating when Jenna’s daughter explains that the cafeteria doesn’t have enough money to serve food. Last year, the students were given baked potatoes with cheese for a week, and this year, they’re being served mozzarella sticks. She said, “We’re running out of food.” When Jenna asks if the students are being served snacks, her daughter said no, just apples.

Jenna called this “unacceptable” and she’s absolutely right. Commenters said school lunches are usually covered by federal funding and the Yonder pouches might have been a private grant. But either way, there is no reason to spend tens of thousands on pouches for cell phones instead of ensuring there is enough food for kids. One user shared their own sad school funding story and said, “One of our schools just spent 3 million on a new roof for the gym 5 months ago and chose to cut corners and use cheaper materials” and the roof has already broken.

Jenna’s TikTok emphasizes two big problems: Schools not getting enough money, and questions about what the money that is being given is used for. Seriously, can’t students keep their cellphones in their lockers or in their backpacks? As some commenters pointed out, when Jenna’s daughter’s school cafeteria didn’t have enough food, the students still had to pay for it. And that’s a whole other problem: The tragic fact that some kids can’t afford to buy lunch at school.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, $11 billion was spent annually so kids attending public schools could get lunch for free. Then, tragically, the federal waiver stopped at the start of the 2022/2023 academic year. 9 million U.S. kids are considered “food insecure” and a grade 4 student told The Associated Press, “It’s hard to focus in class when I’m hungry. Food helps me pay attention to what I’m learning.” Is there a more heartbreaking and stomach-dropping statement than that?

Every summer, social media influencers ask for their followers to help send teachers the supplies they need for their classroom, a trend that is known as “#ClearTheList.” And, now that Trump wants to get rid of the Department of Education, it’s impossible not to be terrified of what budget cuts are coming next. As reported by NBC News, if states are in control of education, no one is certain which people would be in charge of ensuring how money gets where it needs to go. That means schools where students have disabilities or are less well-off could be harmed in the process. And, if that happened, every student would be affected.